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Updated 12.30pm
THERE WERE ANGRY scenes in the Seanad this morning as the Government was accused of trying to rig the banking inquiry in its favour.
The row centred over coalition plans to add two more senators to the panel – Fine Gael’s Michael D’Arcy and Labour’s Susan O’Keeffe – giving it a majority.
Sinn Féin senator David Cullinane called the motion being put to the house an “absolute disgrace” and said the Taoiseach should come in and address the chamber.
“Government senators should be ashamed of themselves,” Cullinane said.
He was heckled by Government members as he accused them of “not wanting” to get to the truth, and of being more interested “in scoring points off Fianna Fáil”.
The banking inquiry had been made up of nine members – five opposition and four government – but in seeking to regain a majority the coalition has added two more members this morning.
Opposition senators succeeded in adding Fianna Fáil’s MacSharry to the inquiry team last week, after a number of government senators missed a crucial vote of the Seanad selection committee.
There have been several rows in the Dáil and Seanad over the issue in recent days culminating in this morning’s vote during the Seanad Order of Business.
The motion to add to the committee was passed by six votes and increases the membership of the inquiry team to 11 – six government and five opposition members.
Responding for the government in the upper house this morning, Labour Senator Aideen Hayden said it was “the ultimate in irony” to hear “Fianna Fáil talking about skulduggery and Sinn Féin talking about democracy”.
“The other thing I would say is never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.
“Let me be absolutely clear about what we’re appointing people to here. We’re not actually appointing people to a banking inquiry. We’re appointing them to a committee to set terms of reference for a banking inquiry.
“This may be too legally complex for some of the eminent minds at the other side of the house, but that is the fact of the matter.”
’This may be too legally complex’… [Oireachtas.ie]
Independent (and former Fine Gael) senator Paul Bradford, a member of the selection committee, said the Government was trying to re-write the result of last week’s meeting at which the inquiry membership was agreed.
“It will be written that on Thursday June 12th the moral authority of the current Government completely disappeared and Seanad Éireann entered into a place of total disrepute,” Bradford said.
What is happening this morning is deeply disturbing.
Senator Ned O’Sullivan of Fianna Fáil said it was “a very dangerous day” for democracy and that the Taoiseach had “dumped down on the house again”.
He said Enda Kenny was asking them to approve something “that Hitler himself, with the Enabling Act would have been ashamed of”
Quite clearly the Government have no interest in a real, productive banking inquiry at all.
Ned O’Sullivan [Oireachtas.ie]
O’Sullivan appealed for independent senators not to back the motion, saying that if it went through “it would be the worst day since the Blueshirts”.
There were also angry words from Senator James Heffernan, who resigned the party whip in 2012.
He said the Government motion was “absolutely reprehensible” and claimed the coalition had been seeking an inquiry akin to a “Nuremburg-style trial”.
“What’s the point in having any democratic institution if you’re going to be treated in this fashion,” Heffernan said.
“What you’re going to have is a show-trial that no-one, no-one, is going to abide by or uphold anything out of.
You’ve made a complete and utter balls of it.
https://vine.co/v/Mjji6t0WFvm
Outside Leinster House, Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesperson and banking inquiry member Michael McGrath said the committee is now controlled “in a very political way”.
“I think ultimately the outcome of this is that the inquiry itself is damaged with its credibility severely undermined,” he said.
In the Dáil, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore hit out at the opposition, accusing them of a “parliamentary stroke” by adding two opposition senators to inquiry when there was “an understanding” that it would be one government and one opposition.
“A bit of slick parliamentary footwork was performed and we ended up with two opposition members proposed to be nominated,” he said.
He said that Seanad membership of the inquiry should be made up of both government and opposition, adding: “That’s what balance is about”.
- additional reporting from Hugh O’Connell
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6 years on and not a thing done about any of this. Kick the can down the road and rig the inquiry years later when half the countries left. How can this be. Do we not deserve better??? I’m reading this from abroad like so many others and thank god there is somebody in opposition to highlight their carry on. Roll on the next election.
Waste of time and money , will be all smoking mirrors
Haven’t lived in Ireland in 5 years thankfully. I don’t think I could ever hack living there again, too backward and frustrating.
Probably for the best that Senator Hayden is not on the inquiry given her apparent inability to use percentages. Should probably know the difference between enquire and inquire also.
Who do want on the panel Enda?
Dukes?
Sutherland?
Lowrey?
Spring?
Neary?
You forget John Perry !
*forgot,even
………it was “the ultimate in irony” to hear “Fianna Fáil talking about skulduggery and Sinn Féin talking about democracy”……… said the unelected Senator Aideen Hayden.
Control the scope, contol the terms of reference, control the committee. Not really surprising given FG are up to their necks in dodgy bank dealings as well.
Has Phil Hogan explained his €900,000 soft loan from Fingers Fingleton yet?
Revolution in politics? Transparency?
This will be a taxpayer funded stick for FG to beat its opponents with, nothing more.
Who should control it?? FF? No thanks. They are responsible for the mess.
SF? No thanks. Not trustworthy.
If you want your SF related comments to be taken seriously, try using an account name that doesn’t so blatantly show your bias.One of your other troll accounts should do nicely….
An opposition to the party is wrong. All hail Sinn fein.
Says the annonymous “Were Jammin”.
Lack of sense on the comments on this site at types is beyond frustrating.
That’s a serious accusation were jamming, why don’t you go to the gardai with your proof, amusing coming from a shinner although a recently converted shinner.
It should be independent. FG are as guilty as FF in this whole thing.
Hey! That’s not fair.
Hitler had leadership skills!
David is absolutely right. Then again what do we expect from the Irish unionist parties FG, FF and Lab. Trust Sinn Fein to highlight this injustice.
Yeah they’re great. We’d be lost without them. That’s all they ever do – huff and puff.
Let’s see them start to deliver on the councils where they hold the majority of seats.
Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
They will.
I think you’ll find that this decision was made by Enda Kenny, the guy who was leading the democratic revolution after the last election. Labour were probably left out of this decision (yet again) and Ff can’t be held responsible either.
Think they have started already :)
South Dublin County Council workers are going on strike. Let’s see how the SF majority and the SF Mayor deal with that.
“Oh no, that’s not our area. That’s the job of the County Manager”. Yeah.
As Seamus Brennan said to the PDs “Ye’re playing senior hurling now, boys”.
Time to deliver, instead of shouting from the side lines.
Sinn Fein will sort it out.
@ Chin Give it a rest, this isn’t about SF …. it’s about government corruption.
Hands up who thinks the bank enquiry will cost the tax payer, achieve nothing, jail no one and not cancel the current bail out debt….
Sham enquiry, sham government, sham country. Emigrate if you can
Ireland is a great country even if I get annoyed at Irish people talking it down. Live elsewhere and you’ll quickly realise that no country is a utopia.
Why is it great?
+1 Ryan, most of the complainers have never been out of the country except for a week’s holiday in the Canaries. Broaden your minds and horizons folks!
America, Portugal, Spain, France, Sweden, England, Scotland. I have been to all of them and all of them are much better than Ireland
Hurling
Turf fires
Scenery
Weather – never too cold, hot or windy
Friendly people
English speaking
America, Portugal, Spain, France, Sweden, England, Scotland
You’re just being silly now. Try being poor in America……try getting a job in Spain……
Ye because people in other countries aren’t friendly at all. How ridiculous.
Try being middle class in Ireland, the government wont allow that sort of thing. They rather supplement the parasites, and make sure the elite get their bonuses.
You are right about the weather. It’s never too hot or cold, but sure who doesn’t love grey skies and rain 2 thirds of the year
“the parasites ” well aren’t you a charmer
I don’t know about better just different
A slur on Hitler
Marc MacSharry’s father has been involved in the boards of both Bank of Ireland and ILP. Whatever people might say about this government, that surely represents a conflict of interest if he is to investigate these banks.
Meanwhile Susan O’Keefe is a former journalist who went to jail for her thorough investigative journalism in the 1990s.
I say that one additional member should be nominated if the inquiry is to proceed – O’Keefe – and that would mean the opposition and the government had equal numbers on the Committee.
If O’Keeffe is so good Why not just swap her with another coalition member.
The SF member is 100% correct here, it’s a disgrace that just because the government lost the vote they now redesign the board of the enquiry to add more members.
There is no difference between FG, FF and labour. This corruption stinks
Ryan they are not investigating but deciding on terms of reference for an Enquiry, read the article. Can you not see that the government have deliberately manipulated it so that the govt control the terms of reference? Susan O’Keefe maybe an “award winning” journalist but she showed absolute disdain for the vote and the process by deciding that “supporting” her daughter during her leaving certificate was more important. I feel sick.
Fair play to Senator Cullinane, one of the few members of the upper house that actually manages to squeeze some measure of government scrutiny from the otherwise overwhelming uselessness of the Seanad. There goes Ciara Conways seat anyway.
And a good thing too. Deputy Leader of the 4% party ?
Come on Ireland, can we for once get an inquiry setup that actually achieves something other than being a talkshop.
Email Enda and his cronies they are the ones making a total mess of this.
If your only blaming Kenny and the current government for the current problems we have, you have a very short memory my friend.
Eanna “not one more cent” ring any bells does it !!!!!
Off course Kenny has made some real clangers that is true, but lets not forget the roles that BIFFO and and the late Brian Lenihan have also played in this Punch and Judy show. The show has a very LARGE cast of clowns and idiots that have failed this country.
Its very damming of our country that a 100 year old poem by Yeats is still as relevant to today as it was back then:
“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, It’s with O’Leary in the grave”
Meine Furher will not be happy Ned.
I think the legal complexity is lost on her actually. Can’t believe we allow these unelected Shams to tell us what to do.
This sheep contest is a sham! And a fraud and a sham!
At least hitlers Germany had jobs
These ghastly politicians are becoming more pathetic by the day. The country had been torn asunder by bankers who have served no jail time and the mediocre dunces in the Oireachtas are hyper-ventilating about membership participation of a subsidiary committee. Not a word about credentials, capability or competence.
Haha well on the bright side she wont have to worry about keeping her “vow of abstinence from ministerial office”. For a change the decision to break a pre election pledge will be made for her !!!
David Cullinane made a valid point. The rest is just drivel. We should start a petition to abolish the Dáil in it’s present form and to also reform the Senate. The Dáil is a complete disgrace where the main parties swing everything to their agendas and is an insult to those of us who voted for Independents or other small parties. We need an entire new system where honesty and keeping your word are paramount. Not Lies, Spin, Insults, Half-Thruths, Slurs, Name-Calling, Scoring cheap points, Getting a laugh, Blaming Jerry Adams if Sinn Féin make a point, Blaming Mick Wallace for his hair and T-shirts etc. etc. It is a joke and will one day in the future be the subject of an enquiry as to why we let it go on.
Most logical answer is to remove the Whip system, deputies vote their own way then.
Sort of saves the referendum, legal system change, reforming of the state, etc., required to abolish the Dáil.
Did FF not gerrymander this committee in the first place be calling a snap vote on the one day that they knew two members of the selection panel would not be in the Seanad? Sauce for the goose………
Where was Lorraine Higgins? She was supposed to be there too
@Barry. Yes. That the the issue that should be addressed! The ‘balance’ should be irrelevant as all members of the ToR committee should be sworn in to set it up as an honest enquiry, devoid of political influence/preference. And that Cullinane had to be the one to address it is vomit-inducing.
Higgins was on a weeks leave with a pair. O Keefe had a days leave with a pair. The FF head of the committee decided to call the vote at the shortest possible notice on a day that he knew that the governing parties would have a minority on the selection panel, because pairs only count for votes in the normal order of business, not committees/panels. I certainly dont consider this to be democratic, and the audacity of any other party to claim it is disgusts me.
Wrong Barry, Denis O’Donavan rang the government rep last Wednesday morning and he was told to hold the vote Wednesday (same) evening, before the vote took place Fianna Fáil offered the government an adjournment out of courtesy but government side refused and decided to push ahead with the vote in which they subsequently lost. This is all on the record of the house but don’t let facts get in way of a good story!!!
If FF knew the 2 Labour senators would not be present I assume the Govt parties knew also ? Why didn’t they sort out their votes by nominating 2 others to the committee ?
Its happening in county councils all over the country where FF and FG councillors are joining together to keep the majority in the councils. So much for democracy.
Seamus,
This is nothing new. At the last Donegal County Council, before the recent Local elections, FG, Lab and SF had a pact to keep the majority FF out.
This has been the way for years. Why is it only an issue now?
Its an issue because FG said they were gonna be different and got elected on the premise that they were gonna be open and transparent in their politics. Same shite still happening.
Did you believe they are going to be different?
The had a pact with SF in Donegal during the 2011 GE and right up to 2 months ago. Yet they say they won’t go into Gov with SF.
And on that, While SF were saying they won’t go into Gov with FG, they had a pact together.
All parties will coalesce if it helps their own cause in some way.
And their own cause is the only thing they think of.
at least hiltler topped himself in the end
I would agree that one extra government committee member would bring parity.Good idea.But again just brings to my mind how the people of this country voted to keep the Seanad.Its a part time job.65,000 euro a year and huge travel allowances tax free.Since it was saved the Seanad has done nothing to justify itself as a way of blocking government on some issues .They are an unelected body that does not represent the people.There are many very good Senators but it gauls me at how powerless the Seanad is and how much it’s costing us.Some Seanad members who were elected councillors got as much as 60,000 euro severemce for leaving the councillors when they were appointed to the Seanad
On the scale of things it costs a pittence. The reason people voted to to keep it was with a view to seeing it reformed. Unfortunately, the government are dragging their heals.
I bet it was like this in the Seanad today:
Nobody should, that’s the point! It should be made up of individual elected representatives who think and act with their own heads, NOT automatons who blindly vote with party leadership – if that’s the way it’s going to be, we may as well abolish the Oireachtas altogether and let the cabinet do everything personally.
Our whipped political system is an absolute JOKE. There is no democracy, no accountability, no representation – there are just party leaderships and their rubber stamping, toothless TDs. And Enda Kenny has, probably accidentally, made this clear to the nation in one sentence.
Hang on minute, a government being deceitful and unfair… I don’t believe it… The actual government of Ireland not being fair… No this article must be wrong.. I refuse to believe it, no way… Not the government who everyone expects to be transparent… This article must be a mistake, couldn’t possibly be true as if the citizens would allow this type of thing…
And to think we had the chance to wipe those idiots off the government payroll
If the moustache fits ..
Both future coalition partners should be careful what they say about each other in the run up to the next General Election.
What’s senator Aideen Hayden tyring to tell us with her tweet “Govt wins vote in Seanad by 6. Vote will put award winning journalist @susanokeeffe on #bankingenquiry team and increase no of women by 100%”. Last time I checked a 100% increase on 0 is still 0.
Disgraceful no wonder people sick of politicans
It could have been worse…
……he could have been compared to Barack Obama.
That wouldn’t have been worse for Hitler!
@ david mc sweeney When you are using the Gardai to prevent protest at the installation of water meters, you have turned the Gardai into an arm of the state. Hitler would be proud of that move. So the comparison is accurate.
Any F***er that tell the irish people that they water will be cut off if they don’t pay is worse that any hittler
Kenny is a dictator who sold us out to europe just like the blueshirts did before to the brits
I have actually lost faith in the people to stick up for themselves, they will stay at home and whine, they will vote the same corrupt parties over and over and wonder why we are being screwed thanks to the lazy 48% who did not vote, they are perhaps the same bunch who are negative about Ireland and never left the country protesting? nope but maybe we should hire people abroad to protest for us!
(disclaimer) if one of the 48% who could not attend for actual genuine reasons then thats no fault!
correction (never left the country. Protesting?) avoid confusion
Who the F?Ck would believe this lot now waste of money
He’s worse. Hitler wouldn’t play drum and bass music at 2 o’clock in the morning!
Language and hyperbole like that completely undermines the point David Cullinane is trying to make. People just read a headline about Hitler instead of a headline about a rigged banking inquiry.
Funny how they talk about democracy in the seanad when the majority of them were appointed to the seanad and not elected, the seanad a house where Joe soap has no say on who is in it….
What do you expect – he is a fascist blueshift
The one thing that everyone on here seems to be missing out on – is that the only reason that the opposition constituted the majority to begin with is because they won a vote. They won the vote because a number of government senators were not present.
Remember not too long ago when senators crawled out of the woodwork to justify their jobs to us for almost a full year when it looked like the Seanad would be abolished? Now they can’t be bothered to show up for work, and lose a vote. But that’s ok, we’ll just waste a week or so of both houses time on it, and then we’ll vote again.
This is about as political as the Nice treaty referendums.
Don’t care what was being debated ! Comparing Enda to Adolf is a disgrace Ned should apologise or resign!
If the shoe fits…
I do not want an inquiry unless everybody on the panel and appearing before it is their on a voluntary basis, in other words the tax payer pays nothing for this. I want my USC reduced , my pension levy charge got rid of, my water charges reduced, my property tax got rid of. For christ sake we cannot pay the guards, doctors, special needs assistants and these muppets want a stupid inquiry that cannot find any finding of facts.
This is politics at it best a good distraction from the real issues. Enda is not Hilter, enda is bow bow the clown.
At least Hitler had one ball!
Is that the same Hitler for who Fianna Fail Taoiseach Eamon deValera signed a book of condolence in 1945?
have your say